Bauchi: My Regrets Over Dogara’s Defection – Bala |The Source

By Akinwale Kasali

The Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, has dismissed former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara as a liar, and an unreliable character.

Dogara, decamped from the ruling APC to the PDP in late 2018, when he found out that the APC was going to deny him a return ticket to the House. The PDP quickly have him a ticket. He won. But early last week, Dogora shocked the PDP, when he decamped again to the APC, citing bad governance and corruption in the part of Governor Bala Mohammed.

He accused  Mohammed of diverting a N4.6billion loan, inflating contracts sums, and mismanaging  local government funds.

He said he can’t be in the PDP and attack Governor Mohammed, as this would be termed insurbodination, betrayal and attacking the Party he belongs to, prompting him to join the APC.

Piqued by the allegations, Mohammed in dismissing the allegations has called Mohammed a liar, and an unreliable character.

Addressing members of Dogara’s  Constituency – Dass/Tafawa Balewa/Bogoro – who paid him   a solidarity visit on Wednesday, the governor said of Dogara: “It is a very regrettable development. It is unfortunate because he is a young man that we so much love and appreciate, including me. Even now I don’t harbour any malice against him.

“But he came to show his true colours as a pretender, as a fabricator of lies against my person, who has helped him to reconnect and recapture his mandate as a member of the House of Reps. after being expelled by my adversary, the former Governor.”

The Governor also assured leaders of the PDP in Nigeria that Bauchi remains “intact” for the party.

Recall that Dogara’s original party was the PDP, from where he decamped to the APC. From APC, he went back to the PDP, and now he has gone back to the APC.

Opinion, in many political circles, is that Dogara decamped to the APC with an eye on 2023. He is speculated to be eyeing either the office of the President, or that of the Vice President on the bill of the APC.

Before Governor Mohammed’s reaction, the Chairman, PDP Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jibrin, has pointedly accused Dogara of detecting to the PDP in order to get the APC ticket for the Presidency or Vice Presidency, knowing that he stood no such chance in the PDP.